Yesterday, the National ICE Council, which is the union representing about 7,600 officers and agents who work for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, sent a harshly critical letter to President Trump regarding the Administration’s current catch-and-release policies wreaking havoc at the southwestern border.

ICE officers who endorsed President Trump in 2016 now say he has failed to follow through on his get-tough promises, saying catch-and-release of immigrants living illegally in the U.S. is not only still happening, but has gone into “overdrive.”https://t.co/unfnrSryUT

The National ICE Council had previously endorsed President Trump in the 2016 presidential election. At the time, the National ICE Council noted that 2016 marked the first time that the Council had ever endorsed a presidential candidate. “In his immigration policy, [Trump] has outlined core policies needed to restore immigration security — including support for increased interior enforcement and border security, an end to sanctuary cities, an end to catch-and-release, mandatory detainers, and the canceling of executive amnesty and non-enforcement directives,” the Council said at the time, according to Politico.

The Washington Times reported on the letter that the National ICE Council sent yesterday to the White House:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers say they’re being roped into such mundane tasks as opening the doors on vans to release immigrants already caught by Border Patrol agents. That’s dragging the officers from their usual duties of nabbing fugitives, or scouring local prisons and jails for immigrant criminals who lived illegally in the U.S. ready to be deported.

The shell game is all the more “ridiculous,” the officers said, because Border Patrol agents could fill out paperwork and open the doors themselves, but the agency’s leaders don’t want to be part of catch-and-release.

“Hundreds of man hours are wasted each day at a time of crisis on the border,” the leaders of the National ICE Council, the union that represents ICE officers, said in a letter sent directly to Mr. Trump on Monday. …

“You frequently speak publicly of the great public safety work ICE is doing under your leadership. To be direct Mr. President — the rhetoric doesn’t match reality and we hope that this letter shows you the complete and total nonsense that is really taking place under the Trump Administration on the southern border,” the ICE officers said.

As The Daily Caller has reported, other portions of the letter are even harsher. “To be direct Mr. President — [your] rhetoric doesn’t match reality and we hope that this letter shows you the complete and total nonsense that is really taking place under the Trump Administration on the southern border,” the officers wrote.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responded to the National ICE Council letter with its own statement, which stated: “We have repeatedly sounded the alarm with Congress as resources are being stretched across DHS as agencies work to contain this historic surge…ICE and CBP are fully engaged on a coordinated response and continue to update Congress on the challenges faced by our agents and officers at the border.”

The situation at the southwestern border has only seemed to worsen, of late. As The Daily Wire reported last week, even the national security reporter specializing in immigration enforcement and drug trafficking for The Washington Post, Nick Miroff, found himself so astounded by the most recent U.S. Customs and Border Protection briefing that he could only describe the underlying numbers as “bonkers.”

Also in CBP’s briefing today:

–Honduras has displaced Mexico as the #2 source of unauthorized migration (Guatemala has been #1 since Nov) –Last month was the busiest Feb at the border in 12 years –31k referrals for medical care, up from 12k last Feb